Washington shellfish managers have doubled the area of the state’s coast closed to crab fishing after finding elevated levels of marine toxins in crab tested north to the Queets River.
Recreational and commercial crab fishing is prohibited in 45 miles of coastal waters from Point Chehalis to the Queets River, expanding on a closure in effect since early June that extends another 45 miles south to the Columbia River.
Dan Ayres, coastal shellfish manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the area now closed to crab fishing includes more than half the state’s 157-mile-long coast.
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